trans siberian… anyone?

tips? costs? timings?

thinking about august, 3 weeks to do the route, plus a bit of japan or china (if we do trans-manchurian or full trans sib.).

how long will it take to sort out visas etc? we'd want to do it independently, not as a tour, so how do we get letters of invitation, and a booking (seem to remember it has to be done through official channels?)

seen a tour thingy which was charging just under a grand for the trips. ideally want a bit cheaper though…

anyone?

http://www.roblilwall.com/cyclinghomefromsiberia/

email him, he's a nice guy

Never seen the attraction, having done a couple of 12/24 hour train trips in Russia but apparently plenty of people do.

how long will it take to sort out visas etc?

http://www.visahouse.ru can do instant (almost) invitations for a small amount and then you can take all the stuff to the Russian Consulate and have it processed anywhere between an hour and three weeks, depending on how much you want to pay. You don't need anyone to take it along for you unless you want to save the hassle of doing it.

I've been looking into doing it next year as a slightly differant way of travelling from NZ to UK.

Best website I've seen for info is seat61

Did it to get from UK to NZ. Flew to Finland got train to St Petersburg and then on Tran's sib to Bejing. Trained to Hong Kong and flew to NZ.

Long trip, but enjoyable and a once in a limetime experience. We did a "stopover" in Mongolia and went riding for a week. It was the highlight. Take a pile of books and some music as it is a big journey. I'd recommend breaking it up as it is a shame to pass through these places as you'll never get back there.

Wife organised it, so detail's on my part limited.

I did it a few years ago, and like cove me missus did the lions share of the organisation 🙂 We did Beijing to Moscow, on the grounds that Beijing has got to be a more interesting visit than Vladivostok. Flights to Beijing are a lot cheaper than far Eastern Russia, as well. Stopped off at Ulan Bator, Irkutsk and Yekatarinberg before Moscow. It was an immense trip, a lot of reading, cribbage, and watching Siberia pass by the window – then the stopovers are great spots for getting out and seeing out of the way parts of the world.

The bureaucracy of Russia is staggering, which really prevents just going over there and winging it onto the train. We organised things through a touring company – basically they took care of accommodation on all stop overs and all paperwork. I'm sure you could do this yourself, but you'd need to be certain you had everything in order. Just checking into a hotel in Russia involved all sorts of administrative bollocks.

Whilst it was a great trip for us, a mate of mine did it with his bird, flying out just as things were getting a bit rocky between them. Split up after a huge row on the first night – bird got together with some other guy on the train, and they then had 2 weeks of purgatory to endure sitting in the same train carriage across the length of Russia 😥

I did it back in 1994 so i can't really comment on what the timings for Visas are today etc. Going out there on business Visas tend to take about a week to organise.

Its a phenomenal trip and something i would like to repeat again. I spent a week in St Petersburg, a week in Moscow and then took the trans-siberian about 2/3rds of the way across to Abakan.

You will have a great time.

I would really love to do it but never seem to find the time. As above, would recommend seat61 for info, used it on other rail journeys and it's excellent.

If you do it, please post up on here (and make me even more envious)!

thanks guys, have used seat61 in the past for trains in and around china, totally forgot about it!

if anyone has any ideas about touring companies, that might be good then. i've got a bit of an epic summer (post university) planned, so i'll morethan likely be out and about, not close to computers etc for reasonable periods of time.

vague plan would be to do it to china and then travel china for a wee bit, or go to vladivostok and ferry to japan for a little bit.
stops in irkutsk and (potentially) ulan bator would be neccessary!

gotta reccomend Rob Lilwell's book linked to above, a great read.

I did this a couple of years ago, interrail to russia then trans mongolian route down through the backwaters of china to hk then up to beijing. a lot of time on the train!

visas are a pain due to the need for an invitation. you have the option of e-mailing a hostel in say st petersburg and asking for an invitation for a month, but only stay for a few days. otherwise, you could use RealRussia[/url] which is what i did, just leave plenty of time and make sure your passport is valid for at least 6 months after the trip is finished.

I did it on my own, with no russian and little planning so a tour group is not essential if you're able to deal with the odd complication. This book was invaluable, practical, easy to use information. I also used couchsurfing for my whole time, met some awesome people and sorted all my accommodation out that way. if you're on your own or in a small group its a really good way of meeting some people and they'll take care of you, show you some genuine russian things, translate etc. Tickets are really cheap if you go in the cheapest class, i think about £70 from moscow to irkutsk i.e. £15-20 ish for 24hrs

Mongolia is highly recommended for about 4 days, do an excursion. you can get your mongolian visa in irkutsk but it is a horrendous faff so get a visa in england if you are considering going there.

i'm studying russian atm and will be going to irkutsk in mid august for a year if things come together. let me know if you need any more help/info

google trans- siberian handbook published by trailblazer guides